Have you ever seen a film that starts with the ending? They exist. But most stories, especially crime stories, build tension. First the problem, then the questions, then the climax. And you sit on the edge of your seat for two hours.
Many presentations do the opposite. Conclusion on slide two, followed by forty slides of evidence. Your audience knows the ending and slumps in their seats. In a webinar, they even quietly click away.
Think like a screenwriter
A narrative arc is the line your story follows: from problem, through conflict, to solution. Slowing down is the trick.
- Sketch the situation. What’s going on? What’s at stake?
- Make the conflict tangible. Business or personal, your audience needs to feel the tension.
- Don’t give the solution yet. Let them wonder: how are they going to solve this? Let a silence fall. Ask a question.
- Only then the solution. That turns your answer into a real aha moment.
Even if you start with the ending, you can build tension. The Usual Suspects opens with a burning ship. You already know how it ends, but now you want to know: who’s behind it? What’s the real story? You simply shift the question.
What is, and what could be
Nancy Duarte studied the structure of great speeches, from Martin Luther King to Steve Jobs. She found the same pattern every time: the speaker moves back and forth between how things are now and how they could be. Your audience feels that gap as tension. And they want to see it closed.
Jobs did this masterfully at the launch of the iPhone in 2007. His first sentence set the tone straight away: “This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years.” Then he announced three devices: an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator. He repeated them, until the audience realised it was one device. Even then, he didn’t show anything. First, he explained what was wrong with the smartphones of the time: not so smart, not so easy to use. Only when the problem could be felt did the solution appear on the screen.
In a webinar, it counts double
Online, you don’t have a room that carries you along. Your audience is alone behind a screen, with emails and notifications one click away. That’s why a webinar needs extra moments of tension. Plan a question, a poll or an unexpected twist every few minutes. Small cliffhangers that keep them with you. More about that in the tip on cliffhangers.
Tell it real, not perfect
The strongest conflict is often your own. What did you struggle with yourself? What went wrong before it worked? A theory you rattle off leaves your audience cold. An obstacle you overcame yourself doesn’t.
Writer Pearl S. Buck put it like this: truth is always exciting, so speak it. Life is dull without it.
In short
Don’t give everything away at once. Build up, slow down, and make your solution the moment they’ve been waiting for.
Does your presentation already have a narrative arc? With the Presentation Check, we look together for where you can build tension. In the training, you learn to apply the techniques of screenwriters step by step, from first slide to aha moment.
